Thursday, February 16, 2012

More good news on jobs and the economy

Several pieces of good news about jobs and the economy have
been released in the last few days:

The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment
benefits reached its lowest level since March 2008.

The business activity index of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve
Bank jumped from 7.2 to 10.2 on a sharp increased in factory orders and
shipments. Hours worked by existing
employees increased indicating increased demand that, if sustained, should
translate into additional hiring.

Jim Awad, managing director of Zephyr Management in New York
said of the new numbers: “"Everything is stronger than expected. Barring
any unforeseen problems from Europe it appears we're in a self-sustaining cycle
of growth.”

Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in
Holland, Pennsylvania added "The numbers add to the belief that the
economy is shifting gears. There is just no number that is giving us a whole
lot of trouble, except for consumer spending."

This set of new numbers may signal that February will be
another month of jobs gains with the possibility that the national unemployment
rate will fall under the current 8.3% rate.
Let’s hope that is the case.

The improving economy/job picture is causing real problems
for Republicans who bet the election on high unemployment and an economy in or
near a second recession. One of the
reasons we are seeing Republicans latch on to the contraception/religious
freedom controversy may be that they hope to shift the election debate away from
jobs and the economy onto what they think will be a more winnable topic—religious
freedom. Democrats must make the
argument about contraception, not religious freedom, if they are to avoid losing ground they are gaining from the positive job/economy news.